A few weeks ago, I walked into the Texas Capitol for the first time in my life\u2014not as a tourist or a parent chaperone for a school visit but as a witness. I was there to testify before the House Public Education Committee on a deceptively simple bill: House Bill 5263, filed by Representative Charlie Geren. The bill aimed to require that every parent in Texas be able to access their child\u2019s state assessment results with a single click.<\/p>\n
On its face, it seems like a small administrative tweak. But I testified because it\u2019s more than that. It\u2019s about a parent\u2019s right and need to know.<\/p>\n
TEA has built an excellent tool in texasassessment.gov<\/a>. It breaks down each child\u2019s STAAR scores in a clear, easy-to-understand way. You can see exactly where they\u2019re strong and where they\u2019re struggling. It even recommends targeted resources for learning support. It\u2019s the kind of transparency that is so important in public education.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the problem: most parents never see it.<\/p>\n I know, because I\u2019m one of them. As a public-school parent, I tried to log in to the website and spent hours chasing down the information, calling my child\u2019s school, then the district, then trying again. I was asked for things like a \u201cunique access code\u201d and a PEIMS ID. When I finally got the code, it didn\u2019t even work. It was the wrong one.<\/p>\n It shouldn\u2019t be this hard.<\/p>\n If parents are partners with the school in their child\u2019s education, we need to equip parents with the most basic, critical information: Is my child on grade level?<\/p>\n Right now, most don\u2019t know. When the Go Beyond Grades<\/em> campaign was launched in Fort Worth last spring, parents were surveyed across Tarrant County. 96% of them believed their children were reading on grade level. The reality? Only about 50% were.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what we call the perception gap<\/strong>\u2014and it\u2019s one of the most urgent problems we face.<\/p>\n House Bill 5263 was designed to close that gap by making state assessment information, specifically STAAR results, easily accessible for all parents. It would ensure privacy, protect data, and empower parents to act when their child falls behind.<\/p>\n I shared this story with the committee. I brought pages of notes, anticipating tough questions. I got none. Not one. Maybe because the problem\u2014and the solution\u2014is so obvious. How could anyone be against this?<\/p>\n Unfortunately, HB 5263 didn\u2019t survive the session. It was folded into HB 4, a broader accountability bill that ultimately failed to pass, getting stuck in negotiations between the House and the Senate.<\/p>\n That\u2019s frustrating. But it doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s nothing we can do.<\/p>\n Here in Fort Worth<\/a>, we didn\u2019t wait. Last year, Fort Worth ISD made the change. FWISD<\/a> parents now have quick, easy access to their child\u2019s state test scores. Other districts and public charter networks across Texas can do the same\u2014and they should.<\/p>\n Until a statewide solution is in place, we\u2019ll continue doing everything possible to help parents navigate the system. We\u2019ve created a step-by-step guide to access the TEA\u2019s site (Texasassessment.gov.docx<\/a>), and we\u2019re connecting families to free summer learning opportunities<\/a> across Tarrant County that help students stay on track.<\/p>\n Because here\u2019s what I know: And when given the information they need, they act\u2014because no one will fight harder for a child than their parent.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s not make that fight any harder than it has to be.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few weeks ago, I walked into the Texas Capitol for the first time in my life\u2014not as a tourist or a parent chaperone for a school visit but as a witness. I was there to testify before the House Public Education Committee on a deceptively simple bill: House Bill 5263, filed by Representative Charlie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-blog","category-newsroom","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fortworthep.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fortworthep.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fortworthep.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fortworthep.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fortworthep.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fortworthep.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2858,"href":"https:\/\/fortworthep.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1814\/revisions\/2858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fortworthep.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fortworthep.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fortworthep.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Bridging the Gap Between Perception and Reality<\/h3>\n
\nParents may not always have access.
\nBut they always care.<\/p>\n